Razer Announces Self-Branded Mechanical Keyboard Switches

Razer has unveiled their own brand of keyboard switches to be used on the 2014 versions of their mechanical keyboard lineup. Instead of using Cherry MX Blue and MX Brown switches, they will have Razer Green and Razer Orange.

So what’s the difference, and why did they stop using Cherry’s own switches?

Razer Green is the the ‘clicky’ model, with similar specs to MX Blue from Cherry. It has a 50g actuation force (down from 60g), and the actuation point is slightly higher. More importantly, the reset point is closer to the actuation point. This is something we brought up in our Razer Blackwidow Tournament Edition review, which had MX Blue switches. This improvement could very well be what makes this the most suitable tactile switch for gaming.

On the non-clicky (but still tactile) side, they have the Razer Orange switch. This one is much closer to the closest Cherry model, MX Brown. In fact, I can’t see anything substantial here… I don’t know if a 0.2mm change in actuation point is going to mean much, nor is the 0.05mm raise in reset point.

Between the two, the Razer Green is the most interesting, at least from a gaming perspective. Having a 0.7mm difference between actuation and reset was certainly noticeable for me with MX Blues, and Razer addresses this directly.

It is possible that this will lead to issues with ‘sticky’ keys, which is the entire reason they were designed with hysteresis in mind in the first place. Only time will tell…

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